SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA Sony Online Entertainment: Catherine “Cat” Neri
Omega Graduate 1998
Catherine Neri is a product of her upbringing. She grew up in a musical family, both of her parents played instruments and soon she did as well. Guitar was her fist love, but she soon found herself tinkering with MIDI gear. This intrigued her greatly, and after high school she wanted to develop her love for music even further. She attended Omega Studios School, and after her 1998 graduation, started working as a low-level engineer at two separate jobs in Washington, D.C.. After a short time, Cat found herself back at Omega Studios as an Intern. She did so well that they offered her a full time staff engineer position, which she eagerly accepted. It was during her time at Omega Studios that she fully developed her true passion: Video Games.
At Omega, she discovered a MMORPG called Everquest, and it captured her interest almost immediately. Having grown up playing videogames on her Nintendo, Cat always had a natural understanding and love for them. The idea of designing sound for videogames sparked her imagination, so she started dabbling in digital audio in her pastime in one of Omega Studios’ many labs. After a few weeks, Cat’s demo was ready. This is where her career really started to blossom.
In 2001, she got a job offer as an Audio Lead for the game studio Acclaim Entertainment in Salt Lake City, Utah. After a year there, Cat found herself working with major game studio Microsoft Games on some of their successful sports titles. Cat had found a niche as an audio contractor for videogames, and soon contracts were finding their way to her door.
After a few years of contract work, she was approached by Sony Online Entertainment, now known as Daybreak Games. They asked her to work on her original love, Everquest! Things had finally come full circle for Cat; she was now designing audio for one of her original favorite games that she discovered at Omega Studios. She was appointed Lead Audio Designer for the follow-up, Everquest 2. Cat eventually went on to spearhead over ten expansion packs for Everquest 2, solidifying her place in the videogame world.
Since 2004 she has worked on many other projects, from games at the San Diego Zoo to working with startups such as Molten Games. Today, she lives in San Diego where she continues to follow her dream of audio design for videogames that started at Omega Studios’ School.
Check out her website at http://www.catneri.com